Not so long ago the peerless intellectuals of the West accepted the victory of the Cold War and the union of Europe with a kind of resentful churlishness; a legacy from the imbecile Ronald Reagan who came into a strategic fortune through sheer good luck. He did not deserve it. They even rewrote history to make it appear that the European project really won the peace.

But now they know the truth.

They won nothing and threw away everything.

The current generation of leaders has presided over an unraveling in Europe, Africa and the Middle that was almost unthinkable half a decade ago. The contrast between the vaulting promises of Obamaís Cairo Speech, Hillaryís Reset, the EUís eastward expansion and the reality of 2015 are almost too painful to contemplate. The turnabout is so extreme it would be funny if it werenít so tragic. But maybe itís the other way around. We have to see the funny side of it to keep from crying.

The omnipresent witness to our self-inflicted wounds is the cellphone. Hereís what itís like to be in the Peshawar mosque. You might have thought the attackers would have been content to use AK-47s on the worshippers. But no, they brought explosive charges as well. They probably would have used flame throwers if they could get them.

How like an angel is man.

A killer angel.

Whither all of this leads I do not know, and have no wish to speculate, not now, not here, bereft of images, reliant on words alone which, in officialdom, mean less than nothing.

And so I will not indulge in meaningless prediction as I perhaps, too often, have done over the course of the decade just passed.